Second Draft Released on Scrapping Upper Limit for Fines in Violating Regulations

Beijing recently released its second draft of the September 25 regulation and is in limbo on whether to remove or not the upper limit of fines for the violations of the air pollution regulations starting next year. The plans discussed the scrapping of the million yuan fine limit and will be adding five categories of illegal behavior in which the fines will be doubled.

Once the draft is approved and is expected to be implemented in 2014, sees activities such as barbequing in the open to giving off exhaust that allowed can result to heavier fines and serious violations of regulations can or might exceed the million yuan fine limit. But some residents are saying that following these regulations are more costly that paying the fine itself, thus the draft is a way to correct the situation.

Experts are saying that the increase in penalties must be stricter on businesses but tolerant in individuals. While some say that the fines will be tougher in the second draft but don’t agree on several changes such as polluting enterprises that don’t relocate of shutdown as required will not be subjected to the double fines.

The second draft now has 130 clauses compared to the first one which only had 96. The first draft stated that fines are doubled for individuals who are caught violating the regulation twice with a limit of a million yuan and eight exceptions came along with the rules. The second draft has reduced the eight to three of the number of circumstances that canceling the upper limit and avoiding the double fine. This means those caught barbequing in the open will result in double fine without upper limits.

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